I'm competing with the male lead for a woman (GL) - Chapter 20

“That’s a good question.”

Xiao Jin was silent for a long time, finally picking up the cup in her hand. As the two of them stared at her, she calmly opened the lid and took a sip of tea.

Today, Xiao Jin wasn’t wearing a crown, only a dark ribbon embroidered with silver bamboo to tie up her hair.

Her black hair fell on the back of the wheelchair, and she lowered her eyes, quietly staring at the olive-colored tea leaves floating on the surface of the water.

This calm and leisurely behavior indeed had the demeanor of a big shot.

In fact, Xiao Jin’s series of actions were quite pretentious.

So much so that Chu Shao, looking at the tea in Xiao Jin’s hand, was curious about what she would say.

However, Xiao Jin’s mind was blank.

She didn’t know what to say after drinking the tea, only that she had three seconds left to react.

A true hero often only needs three seconds.

Within the three seconds it took Xiao Jin to swallow the tea and put the cup back on the table, her thoughts were in a mess.

But when Xiao Jin raised her head again and looked at Su Tan, her eyes were quite calm.

Su Tan, looking at Xiao Jin’s composed appearance, had to admit that she was somewhat inexplicably expectant, even though she couldn’t quite understand why she had expectations for Xiao Jin, who was being extremely pretentious.

“I would also like to ask Doctor Su, why can’t this worm be a Gu worm?”

Xiao Jin slowly asked this question, her face expressionless, but her eyes extremely sharp.

Why can’t it be a Gu worm?

Su Tan was stunned, meeting Xiao Jin’s scrutinizing eyes, and was almost stumped by her question.

Then she quickly realized that the corpse had been in the dark room for a long time, and with the recent rainy weather in the capital, it was normal for it to rot and produce maggots.

Although this small black worm was indeed a Gu worm, Xiao Jin, who had never studied medicine, could identify it as a Gu worm at a glance, which must mean something.

Thinking of this, Su Tan felt that her thinking was very clear, and she was about to refute based on this logic, but Xiao Jin spoke again.

“Doctor Su, I not only know that this worm is a Gu worm, but I can also determine what kind of Gu poison this assassin died from.”

Xiao Jin’s tone was calm, not giving Su Tan a chance to refute, and she released a series of harsh words as if answering her own question.

If Xiao Jin had previously been suspected of bluffing, making Su Tan confused, now she began to re-examine what the other person said.

The reason was that the Gu poison in the assassin’s throat was actually developed by her, but she didn’t know why it appeared in Qi.

However, this matter involved the secrets of the Yao Country, and few people knew about it except for the most honorable people in Yao.

Su Tan put down the knife, looked at Xiao Jin, and her voice even carried a hint of a smile: “Please tell me, Your Highness. I would like to hear the details.”

[Ding! Congratulations host, Su Tan’s favorability +10]

Xiao Jin, looking at the faint smile on Su Tan’s lips, was a little confused.

She also learned for the first time that arguing could increase favorability.

However, fortunately, Xiao Jin remembered what kind of Gu this was, so she could now confidently challenge Su Tan.

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes, glanced at the corpse on the ground, and said calmly: “This Gu is the most poisonous of all Gu, named ‘Juechou Gu’.”

After speaking, with a deliberately profound expression, Xiao Jin wanted to wait for Su Tan to continue asking, and then she would explain in detail.

Who knew that after hearing this sentence, Su Tan was silent. And if you looked closely, her face was faintly pale.

Xiao Jin was very confused.

The so-called “Juechou Gu” was actually something she found in the original owner’s books when she was reading a few days ago.

Logically, this Gu should be common knowledge, which is why it was written in a regular book. But judging from Su Tan’s reaction, it didn’t seem to be the case.

What surprised Xiao Jin even more was that the person who answered her wasn’t Su Tan, but Chu Shao, who was standing next to the corpse.

“Your Highness, I’m a little curious, what is ‘Juechou Gu’?”

Chu Shao’s lips held a smile, peaceful and shallow.

But when Xiao Jin looked into Chu Shao’s eyes, she understood that things were far from simple.

Because Chu Shao’s eyes were too calm, suppressing the deliberately disguised gentleness.

Her dense eyelashes trembled slightly, not looking weak, but the smile under her long eyelashes didn’t reach her eyes, revealing a hint of coolness.

However, the arrow was on the string and had to be released.

Even if Xiao Jin realized that something was wrong, she could only bite the bullet and continue.

Xiao Jin had a feeling that if she didn’t say it according to her original plan, this matter would be even more difficult to handle.

So she coughed lightly twice and explained: “The so-called ‘Juechou Gu’ often hides in the throat. The toxicity is divided into three levels. The first level aims to control the mind, making people’s temperament change drastically, becoming the Gu user’s puppet.”

“The second level devours human flesh, making them withered and thin, enduring the pain of ten thousand Gu devouring their hearts every night. As for the last level, it can turn beauty into bones and black hair into white hair, forever eliminating the sorrow of eternity, hence the name ‘Juechou Gu (Absolute Sorrow)’.”

Xiao Jin recited the original words from the book, her face calm and composed, without any emotional fluctuations.

In fact, while talking eloquently, she was also observing the expressions of Chu Shao and Su Tan.

In any case, Chu Shao always had the same unchanging smiling face, and she couldn’t see too obvious emotional fluctuations.

Su Tan’s reaction was very strange, her lips tightly pressed, and her already cold and white face seemed to have become even more bloodless.

Through Su Tan’s reaction, Xiao Jin suddenly thought of a possibility: the book that was casually placed in the original owner’s bookshelf might not be a common book.

So the common knowledge she thought was actually an unknown secret.

This was outrageous.

Xiao Jin was clearly a transmigrator, but because of some deviations, she always had the illusion that she had read the original story but hadn’t read it thoroughly.

Su Tan’s silence, Chu Shao’s personality collapse, and the Gu poison that had never been described in the original story. The author couldn’t be said to have not explained these things, but rather that they were never mentioned.

Xiao Jin suddenly regretted not listening to the advice of the sister in the comments section and reading the extras quickly.

Just as Xiao Jin was regretting not reading the extras in time, which led to her being completely ignorant of the plot, Su Tan, who was standing aside, had a solemn expression and her hands were a little cold.

How could Xiao Jin know everything… as if no secret could be hidden from her?

The two of them didn’t know that they had deep misunderstandings about each other.

The only one who could remain calm was Chu Shao.

Chu Shao had seen too many strange things, so she wasn’t surprised that Xiao Jin knew about the “Juechou Gu.”

Standing next to the corpse, she could even ask the suspicious point with a smile: “Your Highness has explained ‘Juechou Gu’ thoroughly, but your knowledge of the Gu’s three levels of toxicity doesn’t seem to have much to do with you recognizing this worm as a Gu worm at a glance.”

“In other words, you know the toxicity, but you can’t necessarily determine that this worm is Gu poison. So I’m still very curious, how did you know it was a Gu worm?”

Xiao Jin touched the armrest of the wheelchair, her movements slightly paused.

Wasn’t it? Could Chu Shao find out about her subtle concept theft?

Hearing Chu Shao’s words, Su Tan frowned slightly and realized that she had just been successfully misled by Xiao Jin.

Because Xiao Jin threw out a topic that shocked her, she forgot what she had just asked.

Su Tan asked “how do you know this worm is Gu,” and Xiao Jin answered “this Gu is called Juechou Gu.”

It seemed to make sense, but it was actually irrelevant. After talking nonsense for a long time, it finally came back to the starting point.

Xiao Jin’s heart was extremely melancholy.

Then how could she explain? It wasn’t possible for her to throw the web novel trope summary compilation directly on the faces of the female lead and the female supporting character, right?

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes and looked at the corpse lying on the ground, knowing that she couldn’t argue, so she simply went all in.

So she didn’t answer Chu Shao’s question, but pushed the wheelchair.

The wheels rolled over the floor, making a dull sound.

In the dark room filled with stench and corpse odor, except for her slightly pale face due to serious illness, Xiao Jin’s eyes were still calm, not as irritable and moody as rumored.

Looking at such Lord Yan, Su Tan always felt that this person didn’t resemble the “Ghost Rakshasa” who destroyed the Yao Country, but rather a physician holding a scroll and walking slowly through a bamboo forest.

Strangely, in the eyes of Lord Yan of Qi, there was a calmness and compassion that didn’t match her identity.

The wheelchair slowly moved to the side of the assassin’s corpse.

Xiao Jin sat in the wheelchair, looking at the assassin, her eyes indeed filled with infinite compassion: luckily, you were lying far away, so I could push the wheelchair for so long and think about how to continue talking nonsense.

Since Su Tan was working with the mindset of decoding the assassin’s identity, the corpse was now in pieces, with few intact parts.

Among the bloody mess, the only intact area was probably the face.

So, Xiao Jin had to suppress the urge to vomit and look into the person’s mouth.

After looking for a long time, she withdrew her gaze and said slowly and methodically: “I said earlier that this person was poisoned with the Gu poison ‘Juechou Gu.’ This poison usually doesn’t enter the victim’s stomach but attaches to the throat. Moreover, if the corpse had naturally decomposed and produced maggots, the maggots should be white, not black like this Gu worm.”

“Furthermore, there are small wounds distributed inside the person’s mouth. The wounds are strange, faintly oozing bl00d, as if they had been bitten by some kind of insect.”

Speaking of this, Xiao Jin frowned again and coughed violently twice.

After wiping the bl00d from her lips with a handkerchief, she cleared her throat. Although her voice was slightly hoarse, it was sonorous and forceful.

“Therefore, I can conclude that this worm is definitely a Gu worm. And the wounds in the mouth should be the marks left by the Gu worm trying to crawl out of the person’s tightly closed mouth after the assassin died.”

Xiao Jin ignored the surprised looks they gave her.

She thought, “What’s there to admire? It’s just describing what I see. Anyone could do it.”

But in reality, her eyes were flashing with wise light, and her desire to show off in front of the protagonists was extremely strong.

As if possessed by a character, Xiao Jin stretched out her fingertips, stroked the light blue pattern on the teacup, and then slowly recited the classic line.

“Then, there is only one truth—”

Xiao Jin raised her hand and pointed to the incense pill on Su Tan’s table, saying to the two of them: “This incense pill is the problem.”